From the Head of Secondary 24.02.2024
Go Vipers!
Many congratulations to our U13 FOBISIA Team who undoubtedly will be having well-deserved lie-ins this morning after their strenuous efforts during the week. They did themselves, their families and their school proud, not just in winning a substantial number of medals but also in the camaraderie and support that they have shown each other. I am sure that new friendships will have been forged and old ones strengthened and I know that the students will remember this week for a very long time.
Well done and many thanks to the teacher leaders, Mr Celestial, Mr Denyer and Mrs Beresford. It has been a hugely busy time for them also and we all wish them a very relaxing weekend.
Of course mention must be made of the enormous amount of time and effort which goes into an event like that…..the planning, the preparation, the training etc. So, many thanks to Ms Watt in particular, and to the parents and teachers who encouraged and supported their children along the way.
We will be welcoming our victorious team back into school on Monday morning and celebrating their success in time-honoured fashion as they receive the plaudits and congratulations of their peers, friends and teachers.
Safeguarding Coffee Morning Wednesday 28th February 8am
On Wednesday morning we will be holding the latest in our very successful series of coffee mornings centred around Child Protection and Safeguarding. Next week’s event will be led by Ms Siti, our School Counsellor, with support from myself, Mr Beresford and Ms Young, our Designated Safeguarding Lead. In our weekly safeguarding meetings we often talk about what a difficult thing it is to be a parent. There are many ups and downs, and all parents want to do the very best for their children. On Wednesday we will be talking about this, and about how to have potentially difficult conversations at home. Do come along….8am in the multi-purpose room; there will be snacks and also lots of sharing of good practice and talk about what works, and what doesn’t work. Working together, home and school, in this kind of way can only benefit your children and our students.
CIS is Coming and We’re Getting Ready!
KIS is proudly accredited by the Council of International Schools [CIS] and has been for over a decade. We are approaching a significant stage in our membership: re-accreditation. There is a 5 year cycle, with Stage 1 being the Pre-Accreditation review and report, and a visit by two peer evaluators in November 2024. On Tuesday evening Mr Bromley [CIS Accreditation Co-ordinator and I met with the Board and gave a presentation on what this means for the school.
Moving forward and starting this term, the Senior Leadership Team and Mr Bromley will be putting together the pre-evaluation report under these domain headings:
A: Purpose and Direction
B: Governance and Leadership
C: The Curriculum
D: Teaching and Assessing for Learning
E: Wellbeing
F: Staffing
G: Premises, Facilities, Technology Systems, Auxiliary Services
H: Community and Home Partnerships
The Domain A Report will be sent to CIS 10 weeks before the pre-evaluation visit, followed by the full report 4 weeks before. Once we have the go-ahead from CIS, we will move onto the next stage, which means that we will carry out a very wide-ranging school self-review. This will take approximately 12 months. After that has been submitted, we will have a visit, lasting a week, from approximately 6 peer evaluators. Positive feedback at that stage will result in KIS achieving full accreditation, which is so vitally important for our school.
The 12 month self-study will involve representatives all members of the school community: students, parents, teaching and non-teaching staff, Board members, and moving forward the whole school community will be hearing a lot more about this important process for the school.
Many thanks to our student Eco-Warriors for writing the following update on what is happening in this area of the school!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Margaret Renshaw
Head of Secondary / Deputy Principal
Here is an update from the Eco-Warriors!
Food Waste Project
For the food waste project, we have contacted a compost machinery company called MAEKO where we are hoping to be able to lease a composting bin to transform our food waste into usable compost.
We are also working on an event coming up, which is Earth Week! This year Earth Week will start on Monday, April 22 and we will have an eco-themed activity on each day. For Monday, all the teachers will be requested to do a lesson on environmental sustainability for at least one year group. For Tuesday, it would be Take a Lift Tuesday like last year, where we will ask students to share lifts going to school. For Wednesday, Wasteless Wednesday, when we will cut the use of plastic bottles in the canteen and the cafe for one day. We will also encourage parents to not use single use plastic / throw away plastic when they pack lunch for their children eg. jelly or yogurts.
On Thursday, we will organise another long-awaited swap-shop which was a great success last year. We would then request for students to bring in clothes to swap for other clothes that are in good condition. Lastly, on Friday, we would ask students to come in their house colours for a Food Waste Fighters Day where we will weigh how much food waste each House has and therefore, see the winning house.
Written by Fion, Year 8
Borneo Ambassador Program
On Friday January 26, we launched the Borneo ambassador Program at KIS which is a six month programme that 3 of us will take part in to become experts on one species in Borneo.
As part of the program, on Saturday I went to a bird watching event in Tanjung Aru. There were blue naped parakeets, long tailed parakeets and a woodpecker. The blue naped parakeet caught my eye. It was very unique! I enjoyed the trip organised by OneStop Borneo which helped me learn further in the knowledge of BIRDS! (Ada, Year 8)
On Thursday 22nd February, we attended a talk by Serene Chng on the songbird trade and how this is affecting the population of songbirds in Sabah.
This songbird trade is so valuable to people that poachers take whole nests from the wild to sell, some of these birds do not even make it to the market alive because the space that they are given is very cramped & there is no water or food for them.
Hornbills are very affected by this bird trade as their elaborate casques are very popular and are sold at a high price. The penalty for smuggling ranges from a RM1000 fine and one year in jail to RM100,000 & five years in jail. There are even online markets trafficking animals & sending them straight to your door. On a positive note, Yayasan Bird Planet Indonesia shut down 198 bird stores and found 25,149 birds in the stores.
Naollin, Year 7
